


the road not taken looks real good now

by deandratb



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, i honestly can't believe i've never written this story before, it needed to exist in exactly this part of canon and just this way, post-3.02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28189335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: Immediately following the events of "Outside," Schneider surprises Penelope with a question.
Relationships: Penelope Alvarez/Schneider
Comments: 8
Kudos: 42
Collections: 12 Days of Ficlets





	the road not taken looks real good now

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of 12 Days of Ficlets, requested by [@thosepoorsoulswhodwellinnight](https://thosepoorsoulswhodwellinnight.tumblr.com). Prompt: **"I noticed."**

Elena and Syd were so happy to be outside the apartment that Penelope didn’t expect to see them again until dinner, and Alex and her _Mami_ had disappeared to do some shopping, leaving her with the place to herself.

Well, besides Schneider, who invited himself to the movie she decided to watch. 

“That talk with Alex about consent really spun me out,” he told her from his couch cushion as the opening credits began. 

“Yeah, I noticed. You spent twelve hours calling your exes--I can’t remember the last time we didn’t see you for twelve hours.”

“Me neither.”

The downturn of his mouth tugged at Penelope’s conscience. Clearly it was still bothering him. 

She patted his shoulder. “It’s okay that you’re not a mind reader, Schneider. I know you like to believe that you’re hip and everything, but it was different for us growing up. In some ways, just going for it was a lot less stressful than it seems now.”

“That’s your move, huh? Just going for it?”

She grinned. “Don’t tell the kids, but yeah. I have been known to make a move first and ask questions later.”

“I think they have a point about making sure it’s really clear,” he mused. “But there’s a certain kind of...I don’t know, bluntness, that takes all the cool out of it.”

“That assumes you have any cool in the first place.”

“I am super cool, Penelope. I own a Batmobile.”

“I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“See? I’ve left you speechless with my overwhelming amount of cool.”

She chuckled. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think my eldest has any cool either. Her little demonstration of getting permission for every specific touch? It’s hard to imagine that actually happening between any two people.”

“That’s what I was getting at. Consent is important, but when you get down to the details--too much negotiation could drown out the feelings.”

“Maybe for their generation, it doesn’t have to,” she said. “I’ve always been more nonverbal, but there have to be people who can aim for the ideal.”

Schneider nodded, silence settling between them before he shifted toward her a little.

“Can I kiss you?”

“Yeah, exactly.” She chuckled. “Like that. I think I was still in junior high the last time I asked instead of just trying it and seeing what happened.”

“Pen.” 

“What?”

She gave him her full attention and realized he wasn’t watching the movie anymore. He was only looking at her, now. Waiting. 

“Hey, you- Schneider, you’re not serious. That wasn’t you actually asking.”

“It kinda was.”

“To kiss me.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Why?”

He scratched the back of his neck, where color was starting to spread. “It felt relevant.”

“No, I meant--”

Penelope exhaled. “I didn’t mean, why were you asking me that **way.** We were talking about it, I get that. I meant, what the hell, Schneider? Where is this coming from?”

“It’s coming from me.”

She was still waiting for the punchline, but Schneider had a terrible poker face, and he wasn’t holding back a smile. He looked--and sounded--like the man who spilled his secrets to her late at night: soft, serious, sincere.

“I’ve wanted to for a while. I was trying to decide if I should bring it up. It seemed like a good moment.”

“You’ve wanted to for a while.” Penelope shook her head as though that would clear it. “Schneider, you see me every day. We hang out all the time. You’re my best friend.”

“And?”

“...I don’t know. I feel like that should matter.”

“It does. Of course it does.” He reached for her hand, shoulders relaxing a little when she let him. 

They’d never held hands before. Though Schneider’s behavior had nerves bubbling up inside her, it felt surprisingly natural. 

“I didn’t want to make things weird, that’s why I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“What changed your mind?” 

“I figured I could ask, and if you shot me down or thought it was hilarious, then no big deal, we’re still you and me.”

It sounded like him, but Penelope still felt like she was missing something. “If it’s no big deal, if you were ready to be rejected...why ask at all?”

Schneider’s smile stretched to the corners of his eyes. “That thing you said, about aiming for the ideal.”

His hand brushed her cheek, and she ignored the part of her that found it way too easy to needle Schneider, the voice in her head that automatically whispered, _you didn’t ask first._

Silencing that voice left her with nothing to say--Penelope knew she was gaping at him like a goldfish. But he was sitting there smiling, so comfortable with his fingers touching her face, and she couldn’t grab hold of a coherent response.

 _Where was the goofball who hurt himself on a stationary bicycle? When did that guy become this one?_ She wondered, picturing him a year ago, and a year before that. _How did he change?_

Even after Schneider took his hand back, she could still feel it, a fluttering low in her stomach that made it hard for her to focus. 

_When did she change along with him?_

“I’m happy being your best friend,” he explained, his smile settling into a quieter sort of glow. “I don’t need more than that. I promise.”

She swallowed hard. Schneider didn’t lie to her; she knew she could trust that no matter what else changed. “Okay.”

“But when it comes to the future, Penelope, to potential and hope and what I wish for, when I think about love...”

He laced his fingers through hers. 

“You’re my ideal.”

It wasn’t nerves that had her swallowing again; she could feel tears threatening to well up. 

“Wow.”

He peered at her. “Good wow, or bad wow?”

“Yes.”

Schneider laughed, a single helpless sound that made her want to hug him. “Good or bad, Pen?”

“Yes, you can kiss me.” She smiled past the sentimental tears when they began to spill over. “Hell, yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from "Tis the Damn Season" by Taylor Swift.


End file.
